EASTSIDE : ‘Sancho’ Marks 10 Years on the Air

Veronica Barrera and her brother Luis wanted to hear their favorite song, “Chorizo Sandwich,” and Sancho was happy to oblige. But first, the radio show host wanted to make sure they knew the song, and so the pair, who are 6 and 9 years old respectively, sang the first verse.

“Chorizo, chorizo, chorizo, ooh, ooh, ooh!”

It’s Saturday night and “The Sancho Show” is just one hour into its six-hour lineup of oldies, popular Chicano artists and the obscure songs plucked out of the 49-year-old broadcaster’s collection that he started when he was a teen-ager.

Sancho, whose daytime moniker is Daniel Castro, associate dean of student activities at East Los Angeles College, has been on the air for 10 years as Sancho on KPCC-FM 89.3 Pasadena City College radio. His 320,000 listeners from Santa Barbara to San Diego know him for his Chicano humor, unique music collection and constant admonishments to stay in school.

Outside the studio on Valentine’s Day, some fans gathered to buy CDs, others to request a song for their sweetheart. Inside at the microphone, Castro talked about chicharrones, heart-shaped pumpkin-filled empanadas, and dancing with a girl named Yolanda at the quinceanera. “I’m sure that people turn in halfway through the show and say: ‘This guy’s whacked out. He’s really lost it,’ ” he said.

As he queued up Los Lobos’ “Volver,” Castro talked about the idea behind his show.

“No one’s gone after this market,” he said, referring to the Chicano population that speaks mostly English, a little Spanish and some calo thrown in.

“I came in with the intent that I was going to dig it, even if I didn’t know if it was going to work,” he said of the show, which he thought would last only three or four months. “But this was a market that public radio has never gone after, and it’s now one of the (station’s) biggest fund-raisers. People in the service, their parents tape the show and send it to them.”

As Sancho, Castro gives Chicano poets, comedians, actors and performers an audience and interviews them on the air. He also speaks his mind on events of the day, most notably his protests during the Persian Gulf War. “My feeling is: I have to do what I think is right.”

Six years ago Castro established the Quetzalcoatl Memorial Scholarship Fund, named after his 8-year-old son who was killed in a car accident seven months after the show started. “Airwaves of Aztlan,” a CD he has compiled of local Chicano musicians, is one of several projects that raise money for the fund. Students have received $250,000 from the fund, Castro said.

Six years ago Castro founded the annual Chicano Music Awards. Artists such as as Vikki Carr, Little Joe, Lalo Guerrero and Eddie Cano have been honored at the scholarship fund-raiser. This year’s awards will be presented May 21 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

And after last month’s Northridge earthquake, he was on the air as Sancho, asking his listeners to bring food to the station to make burritos for the victims. People from as far as Duarte delivered hundreds of pounds of tortillas and beans for his “Burrito Brigade.”

But Castro will not announce events that are not community fund-raisers. Nor will he appear at any event that is sponsored by alcohol or tobacco companies. “I’ve never seen anything positive in our community come from alcohol, drugs and tobacco,” he said.

“I don’t see myself as a hero. I see myself as a leader and as a teacher,” Castro said. “I think it’s the message that draws people.”